The rise of Salamander
by DazzTugz
Summary: Natsu Dragneel, just moved to Magnolia and a new student at Fairy Tail school. His first day starts off well, making friends and even finding a cute girl. But things aren't going to stay the same forever. Follow Natsu as he copes with being bullied in school whilst fighting his way to the top of the ladder in the dark world of underground fighting. (Boxing/fighting ybe Nalu)


He approached the large building nervously, the start of his new life. Above all the nerves and pangs of anxiety, he felt a spark of hope settle in his well-built body, his scarf fluttering in the wind he approached the giant fortress that would be his home for a while, atleast that's what he hoped for anyway. He decided to walk in with his head high, have confidence but definitely not give off a cocky aura, being cocky and being timid didn't sit well with him. The sounds of his soon to be peers chattering in their already formed cliques excited him, he wondered if he could be a part of one of those.

Entering the building one thing hit him, a strong sense of warmth and that was saying something coming from a guy with an unnaturally high body temperature. The whole place felt like some sort of family, a feeling that he hadn't experienced since his father had disappeared and it was a feeling he gladly accepted, a small smile breaking out onto his face as he headed through the reception. The beauty that seemed to be the receptionist smiled at him warmly, his cheeks dusting a colour equal to his hair as he took in her pearly-white hair and pretty face.

After a few seconds he decided it was best to speak up, wondering how people handled conversation here, it wasn't like his old school in Bosco was a life of horror, at the start it was great, he felt similar there to now and had hoped for a good year. That all changed after a few weeks, people decided he was for some reason a bad guy, slowly turning him into the delinquent of the school. He couldn't blame them, his sharp coal eyes and wild pink hair gave of the look of a guy who didn't follow the rules, so their stereotypical treatment of him wasn't a surprise. The whole school ignoring you and being scared to death had its advantages he would admit, never doing homework was one of them, this however reflected on his average grades that had the potential to be excellent.

Snapping back to reality he spoke up, carefully speaking to not frighten the receptionist that looked as delicate as glass, but also just as dangerous. "Uhh, hey I'm Natsu Dragneel, today's my first day." He smiled, hoping that his stuttering wasn't perceived as rude, he scratched the back of his neck, fingers trapping salmon-hairs and pulling on them roughly, trying to calm his nerves. The receptionist looked up from her papers and once more smiled before replying "Hey, I'm Mirajane but you can call me Mira, I'll look for your timetable now." Mira got to work immediately, tapping information into her computer and clicking away furiously, after a minute or so she jumped up from her seat and practically bounced to the printer, her seemingly infectious happiness causing Natsu to chuckle under his breath.

She returned promptly, handing him a series of books, leaflets and a map. He gladly accepted and glanced at his inventory whilst she went on to talk about the layout of the school and where his homeroom class was located, his teacher "Gildarts-sensei's" class seemed to be quite the distance from the receptionist and he gulped at the sheer size of the building, the map illustrating the tonnes of classes and routes that were able to be taken to reach certain places.

"By the way, today won't be your first day, sorry to have you come all the way down here but we let new students take a day off when they first arrive to go over their things, you can also take a tour of the site. Which I definitely recommend, I got lost four times on my way to one lesson when I moved here so I can understand the confusion this place causes." She giggle cutely. Natsu was pretty surprised at the day off, he thought it'd be easier to start on a Monday and not Tuesday but he definitely wouldn't complain. A free day off was great and he would definitely wander the site to look around and get familiar.

"Ah right cool, thanks a lot. Do you know where the dorms here are? I decided to come here before I dropped my stuff off." He replied, pointing to his belongings scattered around him, Mira was really surprised, the guy literally had a few bags to his name and that's it. A large brown rucksack was brimming with goods and a green sleeping bag was tied to the top of it.

"Of course, we have co-ed dorms but I believe you're in a single room, correct?" Mira chimed, her words filled with happiness, Natsu nodded in response before the woman rushed off. Surprised, he slung his pack on his shoulder by one strap and jogged after her, catching up quickly before slowing down to match her pace, his guide led him through twists and turns and through various buildings. Many students caught his eye and he gave them a small smile each time before snapping his attention back to the silver haired beauty, who babbled about the ins and outs of the school and every detail.

He soon found himself in front of a large gate which appeared to be the only entrance to the compound that was the living area for students. It seemed that lots of students lived on site and he followed Mira to a small one story flat, the room "777" painted in red above the door. In his opinion it looked rather ominous and he laughed at the blunt reminder that the number gave him of his father's disappearance, to him it seemed that fate would never let him forget that he was abandoned. Mira gave him a quizzical look before being shrugged off by the self-proclaimed "salmon" haired boy, who didn't exactly feel like explaining the reason behind his laugh.

She handed him the key before smiling warmly at him "If you ever need anything, even someone to talk to, you know where to find me." She winked and began walking back to the reception area. Natsu informed her that he'd definitely come to her if he was in need, before turning and entering the golden key to the lock. Slowly turning the key he heard the telling click that announced the door unlocking and pushed down the handle before walking in.

Although the room was pretty bare on his entrance, he grinned at his new home, already falling in love with it. It was small yet spacious and in his opinion felt like home, the scent of fresh paint could faintly be picked up thanks to his sharpened senses. He entered his apartment fully and scoped the place out, noticing that most things were already provided for him. A small kitchen could be found near the bathroom which was just down the hall from the main bedroom, attached to the kitchen was a small living area with a table, some chairs and a television hanging from the wall. He threw his sleeping bag and rucksack onto the bed and pulled out a pair of sweatpants and a small hoodie, deciding to take a jog around the area to familiarize himself he grabbed his iPod and took off, making sure to lock the door behind him.

Natsu glanced at the map that Mira had given him, exiting the living area he jogged lightly down the path, now fully observing his surroundings and taking in things he had missed on the way. Considering lessons were going on there were quite a few people around. He caught glimpses of brown, blonde, red and even blue hair as he jogged along the path. He seemed to be attracting abit of attention from the studying students, he looked up to the first floor window to see a beautiful blonde following him with her eyes, a few locks of his salmon hair peeked from under the cover of his hood as he flashed her a grin, immediately causing the girl to turn red, she smiled and quickly turned back to her lesson with a fresh coat of red dust on her cheeks.

Carrying on, Natsu noticed a small purple haired boy sat by the tree, by Natsu's guess the kid was at least a year younger than him, but based on the textbook he was furiously reading, he would be in his classes. He grimaced, imagining how tough it must be for a younger person to fit in in class. Deciding to try get off to a good start Natsu strolled over to the mystery boy, tucking his earphones into his pocket he introduced himself "Uhh Hey." Natsu laughed at his social skills, or more precisely lack of them.

The boy flinched, causing Natsu's grin to fade, he peered over the edge of his textbook, and fear was pretty evident in his voice as he responded with a meek "Hi." Doubt coated his eyes, the pink haired male expected it was because of some sort of bullying. Their conversation had not gone un-noticed by the blonde from before, her blush now successfully dealt with, her gaze sharpened upon the pair and she was pretty angry, from her angle it seemed that the jogger from earlier was towering over the younger boy and she thought it looked pretty threatening. Her eyes widened as the taller one said something, causing the other to relax and offer him a seat, to which he gladly accepted. Satisfied nothing bad was going on, she returned to her school work.

Natsu looked at the boy sat below him and smiled the most friendly grin he could muster, "I'm new here and today's my first day, you think I can talk to you for a bit?" Natsu immediately noticed how the boy relaxed, but still seemed cautious. The boy nodded his head towards the ground next to him, Natsu propped himself against the tree and offered his hand, "Natsu Dragneel, great to meet'cha!" He smiled, the boy took his hand and replied. "Hey Dragneel-senpai, name's Romeo, nice to meet you too." His reply was certainly timid and the fact that he called Natsu "Dragneel-senpai" seriously bothered him, that's just weird.

"Please call me Natsu and I'll just call you Romeo, screw honorifics we're friends!"

"Friends? You just met me…" Natsu sighed but answered immediately.

"Sure I did, but I like you so let's be friends, aye?" He grinned, the boy's eyes had definitely brightened up at that.

"Sure thing! I'd like that Natsu-nii." The boy smiled, Natsu looked confused at first but smiled back, being an older brother sounded good to him.

"Okay great, here's my number, text me so I can save yours." Romeo complied, typing in Natsu's number before sending a 'hey' to Natsu, as soon as he received the text he made to get up, realizing he'd been talking for a few minutes. He turned to Romeo to see him off, "Well it was nice to meet you Romeo, text me if you need any help okay, I should keep running. Healthy life is the best life!" He chuckled before sending a wave towards his new friend, Natsu set off down the pathway, plugging his headphones in once more and picking up the pace, his first day had been going good so far, he carried on jogging for a further ten minutes or so before coming to a stop.

The building had caught his attention thanks to the large sign posted outside, it seemed to be some sort of animal sanctuary on campus and he walked through the doors. The leaflets he scanned through earlier had mentioned a scheme for students to adopt pets, he guessed this was their home before they were adopted. He walked up to the front desk and chimed the little bell, after a few seconds of waiting a short blue haired girl arrived, smiling innocently at him before introducing herself. "Hello! My name is Wendy what can I do for you."

Natsu was taken aback by how adorable she was and by the looks of it she was the same age as Romeo. Natsu smiled, "Hey I'm Natsu, it's my first day here, do you have any cats I could adopt?" He queried, Natsu had already decided that it would have to be a cat as a dog would be way too much work for him. "We only have one, the poor guy is the last one left after I adopted Charle last week." She pointed to the small white kitten resting on a bed in the corner, "he's just through here."

Natsu followed Wendy to the backroom, the building seemed huge on the inside in comparison to its image from outside, the blue haired girl led him past a few pens with small dogs and ultimately ended up at the cat area where a sole blue cat was sat, its eyes shining as it devoured the fish in its bowl. Natsu chuckled at the image and approached the un-named cat, he turned to Wendy, "why hasn't anyone adopted this guy yet?" He couldn't see any immediately noticeable problems and its colour seemed to be more of an attraction rather than a reason to not adopt the poor thing.

"Well most people take him for a day or two and bring him back, it seems he has quite the appetite for fish and they can't really afford to house him. It's really sad." Natsu nodded in acknowledgement and then grinned.

"Big appetite eh? You like fish buddy?" He leaned down, petting the blue cat and scratching the top of its head, the feline reacted immediately, snuggling closer to Natsu's abnormal warmth. At the mention of fish the animals ears seemed to perk up and his mouth started to form some drool. Natsu laughed and scooped him up," You want to come with me? I've got a pretty big appetite too so you're safe with me!"

Much to Natsu's bewilderment, the cat responded with a squeaky sound similar to an "aye!" Wendy giggled at his reaction before explaining, "Happy is a rare breed of cat called an exceed, their meows vary from each cat and are really human like for some reason. They can also jump really high, it seems like they're flying sometimes."

Natsu smiled, thankful that it wasn't just him thinking that the cat had spoken to him, "I'll take him!" He beamed.

"What will you name him, we need to put it on the adoption booklet." Natsu began to think, the first names to come to his mind were fish, blaze, Igneel and ember. But the cats blue colour didn't really seem to suit any of those names and calling your cat 'fish', would be pretty weird. He looked down at the bundle of fur still in his arms and smiled, the cat seemed to make him happy and had the same effect on Wendy too. So it was decided, "I'll call him Happy! He reeks of happiness and makes people smile, so Happy's the one."

Wendy nodded in response before writing Happy's name at the top, before handing Natsu the form. It asked for the usual information, address, telephone number etc, just in case he was ever found and brought to the sanctuary, they'd know where to find him. Not that there would be many pink haired boys with blue cats wandering around anyway.

Wendy disappeared momentarily before reappearing, carrying a small bag. She handed the bag to Natsu, "This is full of essentials, some food, a bowl and cleaning products. He doesn't usually eat his food so there's also a packet of fish!" She handed over the bag before returning to the desk, waving him goodbye as Natsu turned to leave. "See you soon Wendy!"

Natsu exited the sanctuary, holding his new companion in his arms, the cat had fallen asleep a short time ago whilst he walked back to their new home. Natsu had always been a lover of animals, specifically mythical ones and especially dragons but he'd never had a pet before. Looking forward to the new adventure he arrived at his house. He fished out his keys and unlocked the door, the homely feel once more hitting him as he entered. The sound of the door closing behind him woke Happy from his sleep, the blue feline stretched out in Natsu's grip before leaping out and bounding around the house, already acting as if he owned the place.

Natsu once more smiled at his friend before following him into the kitchen, he placed the bag of essentials on the marble counter before heading to the fridge. Natsu was pretty hungry after the jog and was thankful to see a stocked fridge as he opened the door. He noted that the school really did a lot for its students and he was glad, going shopping in this new place was definitely not on his to do list, he grabbed a ready meal and popped it into the microwave.

Whilst it heated up he grabbed a fish from the bag before throwing it onto a plate, the sound seemed to have reached Happy's ears as he heard the tap of feet on wooden floors and an excited meow, the cat reached the table as the microwave 'dinged', signalling the end of its heated reign. Natsu pulled out the spicy curry and placed it on a plate, steam seemed to be running away as fast as it could from the food and into the air. Natsu sat at the table, Happy mimicking him moments later. The two shared a glazed look before digging in. The sight of cat and man devouring food was quite a thing, sauce flew everywhere accompanied by the odd fish bone, none seeming to land anywhere in sight.

Natsu got up from the table, grabbing both his and Happy's plates that had been licked clean. He placed them in the sink before heading to the couch, plodding down on it and reading some of the school leaflets. A short time later he reflected over his day, the time had flown by and he had come out with at least two new friends, a companion and a possible friend in the blonde girl he'd seen earlier. Natsu thought that things were lively around here and he couldn't wait to start the adventure.

Though he would never expect the events to unfold as they did.

***(A/N: Thankyou for reading the first chapter, this story just kinda popped into my head a while ago. It's going to be a boxer fanfiction, but underground boxing and not regular. Please follow and favourite if you enjoyed and don't forget to leave a review!)***

**PS: The name is "The rise of Salamander." It's only temporary until I find a better one, if anyone has any suggestions then please let me know:) **


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